Miro Magloire's New Chamber Ballet at New York City Center, Feb. 26-27

by ExploreDance staffFebruary 22, 2016

New York City Center130 West 56th Street(Audience Entrance is on West 55th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues)(Entrance for Studios and Offices is on West 56th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues)New York, NY 10019212.247.0430

Miro Magloire announces the February 26 & 27 performances of his New Chamber Ballet, an evening of Magloire works set to music by Ravel, Debussy, Schoenberg, and contemporary composers Friedrich Cerha and Beat Furrer. The season will see the premiere of the complete "Gravity" and an excerpt from a new work to music by Ravel. Joining the company for the February performances is Shoshana Rosenfield, former member of New York City Ballet.

The program of Magloire ballets will feature an excerpt from a new, as yet untitled, work set to the first movement of Ravel's Sonata for violin and piano No 2. (This work was commissioned by Leslie and Richard Curtis)

The Company will also premiere the complete version of "Gravity," created as a birthday tribute to composer Friedrich Cerha, who turns 90 on February 17th, and set to a selection from his Six Pieces for Violin Solo. The venerable Austrian composer is best known for finishing the orchestration of Alban Berg's opera Lulu after Berg's death. "'Gravity' played with shapes," remarked Mary Cargill, "as the three dancers formed and reformed groups of two and one, falling and being supported as their bodies merged and melded with an astringent lyricism." (danceviewtimes.com, November 28, 2015)

"Voicelessness," premiered last November, is a dark, atmospheric duet in which "…the two dancers perform extremely demanding and intensely intimate feats of partnering." (Philip Gardner, November 25, 2015). The piano score is by contemporary Swiss composer Beat Furrer.

From 2014 are two works: "Two Friends," a stormy friendship drama set to Debussy's Sonata for violin and piano, and "Quartet," featuring Shoshana Rosenfield in the role created by Kaitlyn Gilliland. The accompanying ultra-short Little Piano Pieces by Schoenberg illustrate the composer's rebellion against romantic excess, choosing instead a path of subtle, abstract expression.

Making her debut performances with New Chamber Ballet is native New Yorker SHOSHANA ROSENFIELD, who trained at SAB, where she received the 2009 Mae L. Wien Award for Outstanding Promise. She became an apprentice with New York City Ballet and subsequently joined the Company, where she remained until 2012. Shoshana graduated from Barnard College in December 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics.

"There is an irrepressible wonderment to the form of chamber ballet, which amid the grappling violence of daily city life in Manhattan, is a welcome invitation into a more breathable air, where silence speaks in music and dancers step lightly towards the inner horizons of such ingenious visions." (Matt Hanson, www.broadwayworld.com, October 15, 2015)

A few other NCB projects that are currently in progress:

Magloire choreographed the dances for the current new production of Sarasota Opera's "Aida," with NCB dancer Holly Curran as part of the cast;

NCB dancer Elizabeth Brown and guest dancer Daniela Gianuzzi will perform in Rome on March 3rd at the historical Tempietto di Bramante, performing a site-specific work created by Magloire and commissioned by the American Academy in Rome. The original score is by composer Nina C Young, an American Academy in Rome-fellow, who will also play the violin.